


Desert Bloom

by Wisperwind



Category: Naruto
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Flowers, Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, Podfic Welcome, They love each other and are a bit stupid over it but that's okay, This is just short sweet fluff nothing more
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 06:14:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21931273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wisperwind/pseuds/Wisperwind
Summary: While traveling with Jiraya, Naruto receives an invitation to visit Suna and witness one of its rare natural phenomena.
Relationships: Gaara/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 20
Kudos: 183





	Desert Bloom

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Modern Ninja's RP Server Secret Santa 2019 and for Suna's Red Panda specifically. I hope you like it!
> 
> Inspired by [THIS](https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/06/good-badlands-guy-tal/)

The invitation had come unexpectedly and somewhat last minute, as was dictated by the nature of the event, but Naruto would not have missed it for the world. Despite Jiraya's best efforts to isolate himself and Naruto from the rest of the world, Naruto had kept in contact with his friends through summons and encoded letters. 

The latest of these letters had arrived earlier that day and Naruto had waited until Jiraya was sleeping to pack his bag and leave. He left Gamakichi to make his excuses and he only felt a dulled and vague sense of guilt for leaving without permission. It wasn't like Jiraya hadn't done the same to him multiple times and for far less innocent reasons.

The journey is much shorter than it could have been. It's lucky that they have been traveling through Kawa, on their way to the coast for some water-related training. Though Naruto suspects the excursion was as much about seeing women in bathing suits as it was about training him, if not more so. He doesn't understand the appeal. 

When he arrives in Suna, it's past nightfall and unusually wet. Rain happens about once or twice a year in the desert country, Naruto knows as much. Rarely does it last longer than a few days, or so Gaara has told him. It is apparently the reason why he's here. Well. It's part of the reason. It's late enough for Naruto to assume that Gaara will be home rather than out working with his siblings, so that's the direction he heads in first.

The streets are empty and miserably drenched. Water has turned the packed dirt roads into mud slides, and the cold of the desert night is biting deep into Naruto’s bones. Unused as he is to Suna’s rather extreme climate he hurries along, off to the small house he knows Gaara lives in. 

Naruto has visited Suna before, just once and only for a day when he and Jiraya were passing through on their way to Tsuchi. It was a short visit, but Naruto had insisted on finding the time to see his friend, paying no mind to his mentors words of how ‘having two Jinchuuriki in the same place at once is just asking for trouble, what with the Akatsuki on the loose’. As if they could take him and Gaara at the same time. They are two powerhouses and Naruto has no doubt that they’d easily be able to work together.

What he’s found out from his previous stay is that he likes it here. He enjoys the heat and the dry air, loves how clear the stars are and how far the horizon stretches. Suna seems to him like a wide open place, full of possibilities and while he loves Konoha and the friends he has there, Naruto knows that Suna has one unbeatable argument that places it in the top spot in his heart - Gaara.

Out of all the friends he has, Gaara is the only one who can truly understand what Naruto’s life was like growing up. Maybe Sasuke could have had an idea, if he had been willing to expend the required amount of empathy. Gaara didn’t need to imagine the pains of growing up surrounded by people who were both disgusted by and afraid of you. Just knowing that there was someone else. Just one person who could truly understand had been such an unprecedented joy. 

It felt terrible to think that, seeing as Gaara’s life had been just as terrible as Naruto’s own, but he couldn’t help the feeling of relief that welled up at having found someone to truly relate to.

He doesn’t know what time it is when he finally knocks on Gaara’s door, but it doesn’t matter. Gaara doesn’t sleep and Naruto has energy to spare and stays awake more nights than not in any case. The door is opened almost immediately and soon after Naruto finds himself sitting in Gaara’s small kitchen at his even smaller kitchen table, drinking a glass of something warm and herbal that tastes sweet with honey.

“I’m sorry I made you postpone your training. I know how important it is to you.” It’s the first thing Gaara says to him after they sit down. “It’s a rather frivolous thing I asked you to come and see, but-”

“Don’t even apologise, Gaara. Pervy-sage still has had me doing chakra control exercises rather than teaching me anything new. It’s not like I’m missing out on much.”

The frown this information produces on Gaara’s face looks oddly out of place there, mostly due to the lack of eyebrows to effectively frown with, but also because Naruto doesn’t like to see Gaara frowning, much less be the reason for it.

“He hasn’t been teaching you? Then why did he take you out of Konoha?”

“Because of Akatsuki, why else? It’s frustrating, but there’s not much I can do about it at this stage other than doing my best to take everything as a learning opportunity, so the whole thing isn’t a giant waste of my and everyone else’s time.”

Gaara stays silent for so long Naruto almost thinks that the conversation is over by that point. He wouldn't have minded if it was. With Gaara, Naruto knows how to appreciate a good, comfortable silence. He relaxes, sags back into his chair, takes a sip from his cup, looks around the room. 

The small leafy plant Gaara took with him after the failed mission to apprehend Sasuke has grown quite a bit. Its leaves are shiny and vibrant green. It looks well cared for. One more piece of evidence for what Naruto already knew. Gaara is a careful man. Not so much cautious, but full of care for the things and the people he surrounds himself with.

Suddenly Naruto's heart feels heavy with emotions and it hits him again how much he likes this person. How much he missed him. 

When Gaara finally speaks up Naruto thinks he's dreaming for a second, because what he says sounds like something right out of his most secret most private thoughts. 

"You could stay here."

Naruto blinks. He can feel his eyes widening as his breathing stops. 

"I- What?" he asks dumbly. 

If Naruto didn't know any better he'd say that Gaara is blushing, but that can't be right, so it must be a trick of the firelight, or Naruto's imagination. 

"You could stay here, train here. You could retake the Chunin exam in a few months, if you do and there are many capable teachers here who would be willing to train you. Wind chakra is rare but it is far less so here. You could learn far more about it here than you could in Konoha." He rubs his forehead with the palm of his hand, a nervous tick Naruto has noticed Temari having during the Chunin exams in Konoha. "We could learn about our Biju together too, and we're far more likely to survive Akatsuki, if we're together when they come for us. It makes sense."

It does make sense. There are infinitely more resources to be found in a village full of ninja that want to see you succeed than there are with just one person to train you. It is part of the reason why Naruto still doesn't understand Sasuke's decision. Was Konoha really not good enough for him? If so, how is Oto - How is Orochimaru any better?

Naruto himself has been alone too long to understand how someone would abandon care that's freely given. He knows Sasuke thinks revenge is his only option, but now that he has had more time to think on it, that knowledge has turned painful and sad. 

Because Sasuke doesn't want help, will not accept it. He sees companionship as weakness. Will, in fact, fight it with fire and lightning every step of the way. Were it not for Kyubi, Naruto's dead body would be proof of that. That sort of thought tends to put things into perspective. 

Care, freely given, is what Gaara is offering him and Naruto’s will is diamond hard, but part of him wonders if it is really right for him to chase Sasuke anymore. Why can he not chase his own happiness instead?

“I could stay here,” Naruto repeats, hesitant. Longing.

“You don’t have to answer me now,” Gaara gets up, collects their empty mugs and places them by the sink. “Just know that you will always be welcome here. You’re my best friend. My door will always be open to you.”

_You’re my best friend._ The words rattle in Naruto’s brain, knocking loose stray thoughts and overturning everything he thought he knew about himself. He’s thought of Sasuke as his best friend for so long, never expecting the sentiment to be returned. Now, here is Gaara, steady and sure, saying he considers Naruto his most important person. Saying it openly, out loud, with words Naruto can hear, and remember and will cherish for the rest of his life. 

He swallows then, a smile creeps onto his lips unbidden. “You’re my best friend too,” he says, and it’s the truth. He feels so light, admitting it.

They smile at each other and it’s soft and intimate in the dark in the early morning, before the sun begins to rise. 

“Come with me? There was something I wanted to show you?”

As if Naruto would not follow him anywhere right now, if he asked.

As they walk, the streets are empty and silent, and so they are too. It’s that early hour of the day when the night has not quite ended, but morning hasn’t arrived yet either. The world feels as if in limbo, fragile in the silence and the dim light of the moon. The sky is that gray colour of pre-dawn, washed out and pale. It makes the world look softer, smoothes out the edges, blurs it almost like a dream. The world feels unreal like this. Unfinished. He looks to Gaara in this soft darkness and he wants to take his hand, just to reassure himself that he at least is real. 

He doesn't.

Gaara leads them to the edge of the city. Suna was built into a valley, surrounded on all sides by massive rock faces. This particular one has a rough set of stairs carved out of the stone that leads upward. They could walk up the face of the rock of course, but stairs are a more comfortable and less tiring alternative. 

When they reach the top, Naruto stares. 

While they climbed up in silence the sky has turned from pale gray to light blue subtle pink, a thin band of orange light painting the sand golden in the distance below the rock. The rock itself is covered in flowers, vibrant and absolutely brimming with life. There are patches or green, blue, and yellow, pink, red, and purple spill across the rocky ground. 

The desert around them is in bloom.

The air smells sweet, and with the sun just rising above the horizon, it is the most stunning thing Naruto has ever seen. He takes it all in, walking around and examining the flowers, none of which he has ever seen before. They are small, delicate, but there are so many of them. Naruto can hardly believe it.

"I wanted you to see this." comes Gaara's voice from behind him. "Because I knew you would appreciate it."

Naruto gets up from where he crouched down to more closely examine the bloom, turns and, _oh._ Maybe he has to redact his former statement because there can be no sight in the world more stunning than Sabaku no Gaara smiling in the rising sunlight. 

"The desert is so full of life. It is just hidden away because the climate treats us so harshly. But if there is ever any rain…" he trails, gesturing to the rainbow of flowers that cover every inch of the rock. 

"I'm the same, really," he muses. "I was harsh and I did terrible things because I didn't know any other way, and then there were you and you showed me. I would not be who I am now if I hadn't met you Naruto. You're my rain."

It's too much. How can Gaara say these things and expect Naruto to not kiss him? 

He walks towards him slowly and reaches out with one hand, to cup the side of Gaara's face. Gaara leans into the touch heavily and when Naruto slowly leans in to press their lips together, Gaara meets him halfway. 

They stand there, in the soft light of the early morning, in a desert that is a field of flowers and they kiss. And they kiss. And they love each other. 

The end. 

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Obviously after this Naruto stays in Suna. He completes his training, and returns to Konoha some years later. When Temari is named Kazekage, Gaara decides its time to also get some training abroad and he visits Konoha for a few years to learn Taijutsu from Gai and Lee. This continues for a while until the Akatsuki turn up and get flattened by the two of them. Sasuke does his thing without Naruto caring all that much and Jiraya eventually dies from a brick to the head, thrown by one of the women he spies on all the time. But all of that would be a different story.
> 
> Please leave me some kind word or some kudos if you liked the story. ❤️


End file.
